[SMM Large Sample Social Inventory of Building Materials] Price Rally Drives Inventory Reduction, Decline in Building Materials Social Inventory Slightly Widened This Period

Building materials social inventory: According to an SMM survey, the destocking of total building materials social inventory accelerated slightly this period. As of September 3, 2026, SMM building materials social inventory stood at 5.458 million mt, down 78,900 mt WoW, a decline of 1.43%. The acceleration was mainly driven by a sharp rally in futures in the first half of the survey period, which significantly improved market trading activity and sped up overall inventory destocking.

Regional social inventory: Inventory performance across regions remained divergent. In east China, inventory shifted from an increase to a decline, as arrivals of external resources decreased in some areas on the one hand, and downstream end-user projects showed stronger willingness to purchase amid the price rally on the other. Under the combined effect of these two factors, inventory turned to destocking. In central China, the destocking pace was relatively fast, mainly because futures rallied to recent highs mid-week, prompting some agents to sell at lower prices to accelerate shipments and speed up inventory destocking. In northwest China, the WoW inventory decline widened slightly, mainly driven by the futures rally, which led some end-user projects to stockpile in advance. In north China, however, inventory rose instead of falling, mainly because agents were more active in speculative purchasing, with volumes exceeding the actual absorption capacity of downstream end-users, resulting in a slight inventory buildup.